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Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:UEPS) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. UEPS investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with UEPS holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of gauges shareholders can use to watch their holdings. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. There are many incentives for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action regarding Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:UEPS).

What have hedge funds been doing with Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:UEPS)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -33% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

Since Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:UEPS) has experienced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there is a sect of hedgies that decided to sell off their full holdings heading into Q2. Interestingly, Mike Vranos’s Ellington said goodbye to the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, totaling close to $0.5 million in stock.. John Zaro’s fund, Bourgeon Capital, also sold off its stock, about $0.2 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds heading into Q2.

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:UEPS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:UEPS). These stocks are Carbonite Inc (NASDAQ:CARB), Consolidated Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:CGX), Furiex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:FURX), CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ), and Safeguard Scientifics, Inc (NYSE:SFE). All of these stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps match UEPS’s market cap.